Closer Look at the 19" Monitor Features. Part III

We continue our roundups of 19-inch LCD panels . Today we are going to test 13 new models from Acer, NEC, Samsung, LG, Iiyama and Philips. Besides examining each monitor in particular, we will also compare the newly released TN+Film models against the old-timers of this market, i.e. monitors on S-IPS, MVA and PVA matrices.

Some time has passed since my last roundup of LCD monitors with a 19-inch diagonal, and there have appeared a lot of new models since then. Some changes in the market are really very serious. First of all, there have arrived LCD monitor models with TN+Film matrices which feature a very low specified response time, the traditional killer feature of the whole technology.

This low response time, however, is actually the only technical advantage of TN+Film as it is inferior to other technologies (S-IPS, MVA and PVA) in the rest of the characteristics, especially in the viewing angles. Even so, TN+Film matrices have almost entirely ousted their competitors in monitors with a shorter diagonal due to 1) their low cost and 2) their low specified response time which many customers have wrongly come to regard as the main characteristic of an LCD monitor.

In the 19” LCD monitor market there is diversity in full bloom. Now that TN+Film technology has come to this market, too, you can easily find a monitor on a matrix of any type you like. Unfortunately, this all is going to end with TN+Film gaining the ultimate victory and pushing other types of the LCD matrix to the market of 20” monitors which have already begun to fallin price.

So, until this market sector hasn’t yet sunk into stagnation with shops occupied with ranks upon ranks of almost identical monitors on identical matrices, it’s the right time to catch at the opportunity and cover as many diverse monitors as possible. Besides examining each monitor in particular, I will also compare them among themselves – it is going to be the most exciting thing to set the newly released TN+Film models against the old-timers of this market, i.e. monitors on S-IPS, MVA and PVA matrices.